This episode would have been totally AWESOME… if it weren’t for two specific things. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I had that feeling when the class photo of the dead Misaki was shown. I’ve been dying to see a picture of who he actually was, because all we know about him is that he’s some dead ghost who has been haunting the same class for more than 20 years. That was some awesome build-up there. The rest of this episode also had a really terrific atmosphere that really kept me on the edge of my seat.
But really, are you going to play the padding thing again in two consecutive episodes? This is the reason why I don’t rank Another among the best horror series. And don’t get me wrong: it is really good, but at these points it just tries too hard. The kinds of twists where right when something is about to be revealed something jumps up to break the tension completely misses the point of an anti-climax.
Also… Misaki knew who the ghost was? That sounds like pretty big information to conceal, isn’t it? I mean, I understand that she didn’t feel like telling her classmates after what they did to her, but she never mentioned this to Kouichi, someone who she has been very open with? I mean, she said that she preferred to conceal her eye in the class and all, but she sat in the back of the class: she should have had one point where she she found a good way to take a peak at the entire classroom (a test for example), so she knew who the bad guy was all along. The next few episodes had better offer a very good explanation for that.
And on the other hand, this episode did end with one heck of a cliff-hanger.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
FUCKIN SCARY.
“Hi, i’m the female lead character. I’ve known all along who the ghost cursing all of you really is and who’s killing all of you and your families, but I just stayed silent because you were mean to me.”
…really? I want to like this show, I really do, but when it keeps throwing curve-balls like this, it just starts to really annoy me.It’s got a great idea and a great atmosphere, but when you get down to the details, it falls apart…
It’s less likely she’s been withholding the information out of spite or anything than she simply didn’t know what to do with the information.
On top of that whats there to say anyone would have believed her? I know that the whole situation with the curse is weird to start off with but when the quiet girl in the back of the class suddenly says her glass eye can see dead people?
I agree with qwerty1 — no one would have believed her, even if anyone would have listened to “the non-existent girl” and what she had to say.
And, until they heard the tape, what would it matter? Misaki’s a little messed up, and she knows it. If someone is going to be shunned, she was more-or-less willing to accept the role. But revealing the ghost? Maybe that would result in everyone being killed.
I don’t think it’s padding things out, at all. I find the pacing to be fine.
New mystery: was there meaning in Akazawa’s dream?
Actually, I think she didn’t believe it fully herself until she saw the picture with the original another.
Secondly, even if she realized, there’s no point in revealing it. It would lead to panic and chaos, and she might be killed off for spoiling it considering how that went with the guy with the bad heart.
By the way, I’ve been watching parts of previous episodes. It’s interesting in that the first episode’s prologue section seems to contain many of the scenes of the deaths in the series. Or at least a hint of them. Also, certain parts of certain episodes have made me realize who the another is. Be warned.
I think you’re right there. It wasn’t that she saw the picture that she was sure of her ability to discern the ‘another’. After all you have to consider that ALL of the class member are close to death.
Actually, if you take what Misaki says at face value with the curse starting in April not May, and the fact that at that point there was not a seating discrepancy then there is only one candidate for the ‘Another’. It all depends on whether her sister was part of the curse.
oooh, you noticed that too! I thought that was really clever!
Did anyone else find Awasaki’s change of personality all of a sudden in this episode weird and out of place. Like all of a sudden, we have a jealous tsundere to deal with. I love the feeling of this entire anime, but to throw stuff like that in our faces is just wrong. I don’t know about you guys, but there is a place and time for tsunderes and harems, this isn’t the best place for one.
She has always been like that. I don’t see it as a change in character. Her attitude to Mai has always been cold.
Scruffy’s right. Only one candidate. I say it’s NOT a student. It’s a different kind of extra, and the student count was one too high on the first day of class.
Death throws a slider.
Agreed there. If we accept that Mei’s sister was killed by the curse, the list of suspects for the Another is narrowed down to just 1 person.
More importantly, once you focus on that person, you realize it is also connected to Koichi’s memory of being in town 18 months ago and that the twins thing Mei brought up is relevant.
I’m being purposely vague about it though, people can connect the dots if they want to (I never read the source material).
At thing point, the fun for me will be to see who dies, if the curse will me permanently lifted or not and whether they go on a murderous spree like a bunch of headless chicken.
I hope the latter actually takes place. 🙂
Akazawa isn’t the jealous type here…I think she’s blaming both Misaki and Sakakibara for breaking the charm. If Sakakibara listened to the many hints the class gave, the charm would still be in place. If Mei was more distant, the charm could also still be in place.
Since they did not, many classmates are dead which means she failed as a countermeasures organizer…and one of the dead classmates was probably a good friend of her. There must be a lot of resentment going on here.
According to Mei the curse was active even before Koichi had arrived as Mei’s sister died in April. Mei and Koichi did not cause the curse to activate. However it is understandable Akazawa blames Mei.
You were right. I went back and looked through the evidence. Akazawa might be a little bit of Yandere instead of tsundere. I can sense it now. She’s got the yandere vibes. This could get interesting.
Oh no no no. Her anger is not understandable at all. There were plenty to times she could have told Koichi about the curse. There were plenty of times the class could have stopped him from talking to Mei and let him in on the story. Giving vague hints instead of outright saying it only served to make his curiosity grow.
In the end it’s not Mei’s fault at all. It’s because the class was retarded. Oh well it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The curse would have continued.
If she had outright said is she would have been dead, just like heart attack boy
No she wouldn’t. Heart attack boy died because the curse was active. But she met Kouichi before the curse was active. Besides from what I heard there is nothing in the rules about not being able to tell others about it.
But letting him in on the story would mean they’d have to tell him that he needs to ignore Mei. This would acknowledge Mei’s existance and therefore start the curse. It’s a catch-22 situation.
But they had ignored Mei’s existence before koichi came to town and the curse activated ANYWAY before Koichi came. Becuase Akazawa didnt have her shit together, she didnt realize that the curse had already started. so really the shit is HER fault. Which is why I agree with Aidan, Akazawa ia a bitch lol, even if it was met’s fault or whatever, what the hell was apologizing gonna do to stop the curse? Shes just wasting time, and instead should have been doing what koichi had been doing. . .trying to find out what the hell is going on. She was surely aware of the guy who stopped the calamity, but she didnt go and talk to him to find out the info that koichi did and then ACT on it? What, was she too busy doing something more important than. . .oh TRYING TO NOT GET KILLED BY THE CURSE!? Akazawa in this ep was just really fking stupid. she even caused another kid to die by getting all bitchy and making the situation worse!
From the next preview or next 2 episodes, I just imagine a massacre leaving only 2 survivors. Felt like cliche to me.
If Mei was present when Sakaki/Mochi/Teshi listened to the rest of the repaired tape, I wonder if she would have spoken up sooner about her ability, or if she actually needed to look at the photo to confirm what her eye was showing her. Chalk it up to bad timing?
That aside, I like how simple and plausible the solution to the calamity turned out to be: Kill the dead one. Simple in theory, not so simple in execution. There’s plenty of the class left alive, but nobody has escaped emotionally unscathed. The question is, how many more will die before Mei reveals the dead one and he or she is…dealt with?
@Nic,
Yeah, I don’t know the source material, either. After watching this episode, though, and relating it to things that happened early on, it’s the only conclusion I could come up with.
Now, as for Teshy’s “f-up”, I wonder if he just blurted what he learned from the tape to everyone else. That would be enough to get someone sharpening their nail file with a whetstone (In the preview – my money’s on that prim glasses girl), and have them go on a little rampage, trying to kill the “other”.
I can’t wait!
I noticed that Mei has excellent vision through what should be a glass eye…
I saw that too! Confused me badly… I could have accepted a darkness able to only see life force, but with only the glass eye she saw Sakakibara and the room perfectly.
It makes sense if you think it’s magical, but then she obviously knew it worked (she could see using it). So it’s a sort of plothole.
Anyhow, the lack of reason is what worries me. What was so special about this suicide? And if that special thing isn’t related to Misaki’s eye (which I just realised might be her sister’s) then I’ve got a problem. Even if the reason is slightly half-hearted, there still needs to be one (for me at the least).
Alright, 100% sure of who’s the dead one now. Nice to see my initial assessment wasn’t too far off. But that’s just cheap. I mean god-damn cheap. I feel cheated.
dm00, even thought she is the non-existent girl that doesn’t mean she’s hated. Plus at this point the kids are desperate enough to believe prayed to gods is going to do something. I say they would have believed her out of desperation. And who knows? Maybe revealing the dead one is the key to stopping the curse? If the dead one realises they are dead that could stop everything. On that note she said she could tell when others are about to die so she could have warned those about to be killed by the curse. But she didn’t.
On another note, going on a school trip, when you have asthma, the class is being killed off by coincidental accidents and you don’t bring a spare inhaler.
Just how stupid can someone be? I mean its practically common sense to bring a frigging spare!
Mei said she could tell when people were sick. She didn’t say she could tell when people were about to die from the curse.
I quote.
Kouichi: “You mean, you can tell when people are about to die?
Mei: “It’s hard for you to believe, isn’t it?”
She mentioned illness and injury. If she can tell when people are about to die from such things then she could tell from other factors. Including accidents. It’s simple logic.
Not necessarily. She mentioned seeing the colour in people who are dead, ill or injured. Someone who is ill or injured is different to a perfectly healthy person who might be about to have an accident.
Akazawa’s dream actually brought episode 1 together for me. It’s not a dream, it’s an unaltered memory, and Sakakibara, who was in hospital clothes, was there all along. It makes his conversations with his father (who mentioned that Kouichi had been in Yomiyama a year and a half) and his grandfather (who asked if Kouichi was going back to the hospital, implying an extended stay) make sense. Kouichi said to his father that he’d only just started school, which didn’t surprise his father, lending more credence to the extended stay viewpoint.
It also give the curse a chance to get ahead of the countermeasures by manufacturing the “extra student” scenario, without actually bringing in a new student. In an unaltered Yomiyama, Kouichi’s release from the hospital and subsequent entry into the school would have been known in advance, being a matter of record.
In light of all that, I’, tempted to think that Kouichi is the “Other”, but I’m still going with the teacher.
It’s too bad Grandpa doesn’t get much conversation time, because I think he’s actually unaffected by the memory alteration. His short bursts make me think his memory is intact, but his condition keeps him from being able to do much more than dwell on the past.
I think his lamenting Ritsuko AND Reiko is pretty telling, as well.
The class photos were amusing, as everyone common to both photos has the exact same pose in both photos, including the one person who changed position to accomodate the shooting. Probably just studio economics driving that, but I can always use ammo for my theory!
I’ve rewatched much of the series, and there’s so much information, it overloads you.
you forgot about the annoying bird.